On his final Premier League appearance, departing Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard was honoured with a specially-cast loser's medal in recognition of his long, broadly unsuccessful career.

After Liverpool's 6-1 defeat at Stoke, the player widely acknowledged as 'the best of the second best' was honoured in a special post-match ceremony, attended by Jimmy White, Goran Ivanisevic and the 1994 Buffalo Bills, while images of his nearest misses were replayed behind him.

Gerrard's friend and former team-mate Jamie Carragher told the crowd: "Steven lost with dignity. He lost with honour. He lost with glory. He taught us ways to lose we'd never even imagined.

"Lesser players would have given up, or maybe started winning, but not Stevie. Stevie knew that winning isn't everything - losing is. He taught us that if we put our minds to it, there's nothing in the world that can stop us coming second."

An emotional Gerrard said: "All I ever wanted to do was play for Liverpool, and not quite win trophies with Liverpool. And I'm proud to say I've not quite won more trophies than I could have dreamed."

"Ideally I'd be speaking to you after we lost the FA Cup final, but getting thumped by Stoke is in many ways the perfect anticlimax to my career."

Gerrard then trailed off after realising that the ceremony was actually intended for former Bayer Leverkusen and Germany midfielder Michael Ballack.